Theophilus, 'figurative' movement

SAN FRANCISCO -- William Theophilus Brown, a painter who enjoyed success for more than half a century and was closely associated with the San Francisco Bay Area's "figurative" movement, has died. He was 92.

Brown died Wednesday in his apartment in San Francisco, gallery owner Thomas Reynolds told the San Francisco Chronicle.

Brown, who professionally went by the name Theophilus, was part of the figurative movement that art historians recognize as a period during the mid-20th century when artists moved away from extreme abstractionism and included some realism in their portraits, landscapes and still-lifes.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art in Manhattan, the Hirshhorn Museum in Washington, and the M.H. de Young Memorial Museum in San Francisco are among the institutions that exhibit his paintings.

He was born in Illinois and trained at Yale University and the University of California, Berkeley.

-- AP